Volunteers say Taunton needs emergency shelter for the homeless

Wednesday

Jan 8, 2014 at 10:19 PM

Marc Larocque Enterprise Staff Writer @Enterprise_Marc

As shelters in the city are full, some homeless people from the Taunton area are braving freezing temperatures while others have found temporary refuge at places like the downtown police station, according to several local nonprofits that work with the poor.

Advocates for the homeless in Taunton are now calling on the city and other generous organizations in the community to help establish an emergency shelter to be used in cases of extreme cold.

"Up here in Taunton, there's no overflow shelter," said Benny Carreiro, who has been executive director of the Samaritan House homeless shelter in Taunton for 10 years. "None of the churches serve as one. … For these individuals out there in the cold, there is not a lot of help for them. If I don't have a bed for them, they are in tough shape."

With just 14 beds for men and 4 beds for women, the Samaritan House is fully occupied during the winter months by homeless individuals, with a maximum stay of 90 days, Carreiro said. As a so-called dry shelter, no one using alcohol is allowed to reside there. Carreiro said there are around 25 to 30 known homeless individuals in the city.

Last week, just before the first major snowstorm of the season, a group of volunteers including City Council President John McCaul went around the community trying to help homeless people to escape the brutal cold. With no emergency shelter in place, the volunteers said they ended up providing bus vouchers through the Taunton Emergency Task Force to three homeless individuals who used them to go to the Long Island Homeless Shelter in Boston. McCaul said Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. designated the police station as a temporary emergency shelter for another group of homeless individuals to escape the extreme cold overnight during the storm.

But McCaul said more should be done to establish a shelter in Taunton to protect the city's homeless from the freezing weather in the future. McCaul said he plans to bring the issue to the attention of the City Council next week.

"With that in mind, we are putting together a task force to alleviate this type of problem in the future," McCaul said. "If we put our heads together, we can find a solution. … Recently, Gov. Deval Patrick indicated that we need to think outside the box to help the homeless because the economy has really taken a big toll. We should be prepared for this in the future. We really should. We need to protect the people who are in need. That's our job."

Wendy Berry and Michaeline Saladyga, co-directors of the Our Daily Bread at the Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Taunton, agreed that some kind of emergency warming shelter should be in place in Taunton, to prevent the city's homeless from suffering frostbite or worse. They said the extremely cold weather over the past week has brought the issue to the forefront.

But Berry and Saladyga said such a shelter would need proper administration, by someone who is trained to work with the homeless, in addition to a reliable staff of volunteers and crucial supplies such as cots.

"It's a good idea, not only for the homeless population, but for people who lose their heat," said Saladyga, who added that her organization is opening its doors earlier in the morning to allow the homeless to get out of the cold. "It's important to us simply if someone wants to go inside, that they have a place to go. The city doesn't have a program for this. It would be helpful if there were a warming station in place, centrally located in the city. ... But along with that you need someone to manage it and volunteers to come in and help manage."

Jay McFadden, a 59-year-old Michigan native, is one of the city's homeless. McFadden, who has been staying at the Samaritan House for about a month, said that such an emergency shelter or warming station would do a lot to help those left in the cold.

"I think that'd be an excellent idea," McFadden said during an interview on Wednesday. "Most of the guys don't have a car. We get up to walk to a certain destination. We try to stay warm by walking into supermarkets or libraries during the day. If there was a center like this to stay warm, that could help us in the future. That could benefit for everyone."

McFadden said medical problems have affected him and his family, including systematic lupus that took his wife's life three months ago, and have led to his current situation. But he still considers himself "fortunate" because at least he has a car.

"I know I messed up, I should have had a regular paying job," said McFadden, who cared for his ailing mother for 15 years before she died. "But my mother and wife needed me. I paid the price, but I'm happy that I did it."

McCaul said Mark Cook, who volunteers his time trying to help local homeless, was the one who initiated the effort last week to get the homeless out of the cold before the big snowstorm.

"The city government has to do something for emergencies," said Cook, who gives out water, food, warm clothing, blankets and hand warmers to local homeless. "Someone is going to die in this weather. We need to get the churches involved and the city government is going to have to want to get involved also."

Cook said that some people rationalize not helping the homeless by saying "they are bums," who just drink alcohol and do drugs. But Cook said that generalization is not true. Some need help, and want to live a positive life, he said. Cook said there are also at least two homeless families with children in Taunton that he knows of, who live out of their cars, with fear of having their kids taken away by the Department of Children and Families.

Cook said during one of his recent morning trips to the old Taunton Mall area, where he provides donations for the homeless after they wake up outside, he saw two cases of frostbite. They refused to go to the hospital, but accepted a few first aid items.

While three local homeless people were bussed to Boston last week, according to Carreiro it is rare that a homeless person comes to his office for a bus voucher. Samaritan House gives out the vouchers along with the Taunton Emergency Task Force, he said. This year, Carreiro said only two homeless individuals who came to the shelter looking for help took the bus vouchers.

Cook said often homeless people won't accept bussing to another location, because they don't know anyone in that location, or they fear they won't be able to get back to Taunton. Cook noted that, "Sometimes they refuse help from anybody."

In any case, Cook said, "other cities shouldn't have to take care of Taunton's homeless," and that, "the city is responsible for taking care of its own citizens, and the homeless are citizens they are residents of Taunton."

Contact Marc Larocque at mlarocque@tauntongazette.com.

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